Day three of Time Travel Meals: The Surprise in Chicken Thighs!

Day three of Time Travel Meals:  The Surprise in Chicken Thighs!

As I read and think more about the changes that the Great Depression brought about I cannot help but wonder about current changes.  If someone had told us in January that there were be no basketball playoffs, no spring baseball, and that all music concerts would be cancelled/postponed, we would have questioned their sanity.  Yet … here we are.  Technological advances and communication avenues have developed so drastically since the 1930’s that it is really hard to draw direct lines between what they experienced and what our reality might be.  Every PHD-ed person, medical doctor-ed person, politician, and prognosticator of our time is laying out their forecast of what to expect.  I conferred with my chihuahua and he has some thoughts as well.  I give all predictions the same credibility.  My chihuahua is a pessimist so I did take his vision with a grain of salt.  The truth is that we have to put our faith in something besides our own understanding.  Trust me on that and trust me on this – if you have not made chicken thighs part of your new normal, you should.  (Rough segue to a recipe, but play along.)

Necessity forced many transient and poor people in the Depression to add meat to their diets by hunting.  Squirrels, rabbits, quail and other birds were welcome additions to their meals.  People fished for food and became creative in the ways they preserved food so that they could avoid the fast and famine scenario that could occur without good planning.  The following recipe works with chicken, quail, rabbit, squirrels – small game in general.  Got deer in the freezer?  My guess is that it would work quite nicely in this recipe.  If you try it with deer meat, let me know so I can add it with confidence to this recommendation.

Ingredients

5-8 pieces of meat – I used chicken thighs – they are really affordable when you find them on sale and are ALWAYS cheaper than chicken breasts – they are always good.  Always.

2 diced onions

3 stalks celery – diced

4 carrots – diced (canned works) 

4 tomatoes – diced (canned works)

2 T garlic (or equivalent in powder) 

¼ cup Paprika 

2 cups chicken broth 

¼ - 1/3 cup plain flour

Oil for browning 

1/3 cup sour cream (optional) 

1.     Brown salted and peppered meat in some oil (Olive oil works great).  While it is browning keep turning it over so it doesn’t burn.  

2.     In another skillet, sauté onions, celery, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper.

3.     Once onions are translucent, add plain flour and stir until it is combined.

4.     Add Paprika – if you feel like ¼ cup is too much for your families’ taste, then put less – you can add more to the finished product if it is not savory enough.  

5.     Slowly add 2 cups of chicken broth as you keep stirring.  

6.     Let this get all bubbly and gorgeous.  

7.     Remove any excess oil in the skillet with the meat (I leave skin on chicken thighs so I had to ladle out some extra grease). 

8.     Then pour the onion, et al mixture OVER the fried meat. 

9.     Put skillet uncovered in oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.  Test tenderness/doneness of meat.  

10.  Remove skillet and dip some of the juice into a bowl with 1/3 sour cream.  Then introduce the sour cream into the big skillet.  Dumping cold sour cream in a hot dish like this may cause it to curdle.  Not a good look. 

Really good over rice, mashed potatoes, or noodles.  The chunks of diced vegetables are so savory.  Actually better heated up the next day. One-for-you, one-for-me challenge – sharing is caring!